Management of TCE and PCE Groundwater Contamination at the Hanam and Bonchon Industrial Complexes in Gwangju and Directions for Establishing a Korean Superfund Framework
This study examined trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) groundwater contamination at the Hanam and Bonchon Industrial Complexes in Gwangju, South Korea. It distinguished site-specific evidence confirmed by official investigations from scientifically plausible but unverified hypotheses and evaluated remediation strategies and institutional management approaches based on a conceptual site model (CSM). Official investigation reports and follow-up water-quality data released by local governments and public agencies, relevant legislation, peer-reviewed literature, and technical guidance available through August 25, 2026 were reviewed. At the Hanam Industrial Complex, 657 depth-discrete groundwater samples were collected from 171 locations during 2020–2023. The industrial-use groundwater quality standards were exceeded in 117 samples for TCE and 67 samples for PCE, with maximum concentrations of 27.982 mg/L and 5.691 mg/L, respectively. At the Bonchon Industrial Complex, TCE exceeded the applicable standard at 14 of 43 locations investigated during 2019–2021, with a maximum concentration of 0.678 mg/L, whereas PCE remained below the standard. These findings indicate that substantial baseline data on hydrogeologic conditions and depth-resolved contamination characteristics have been accumulated at both sites. Accordingly, the existing CSMs should be continuously refined by integrating previous investigation results with recent monitoring data, and candidate remediation technologies should be evaluated in a staged manner according to exposure-control, source-control, and plume-management objectives. Pump-and-treat, permeable reactive barriers, and in situ chemical oxidation were proposed as candidate technologies for site-specific evaluation at Hanam. At Bonchon, the existing strategy combining pump-and-treat and chemical oxidation may be supplemented by enhanced reductive dechlorination as a conditional option based on the detection of dechlorination by-products. Institutionally, the current Korean legal framework already provides mechanisms for groundwater-use restrictions, cleanup orders, direct public remediation, remediation financing, liability, and cost recovery. The principal institutional limitation therefore lies not in the absence of remediation authority itself, but in the insufficient integration of a national risk-based system for prioritizing high-risk complex contaminated sites, early public intervention for investigation, risk reduction, and remediation before final liability determination when necessary, and stable multi-year financing linked to subsequent cost recovery. This study therefore proposes a Korean Superfund not as a simple replication of the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), but as a functional institutional model that integrates risk-based national prioritization through a Korean National Priorities List (K-NPL), early public intervention prior to final liability determination, stable long-term financing with cost recovery, CSM-based long-term management, and information disclosure within the existing Korean legal framework.